Being Prevented from Having Contact with Your Children

If your ex-partner is refusing access to your child, there are various options you might want to try.

Often this follows a period of difficulty around separation or divorce when there may have been lots of conflict. If this is the case, it is likely that emotions are running high and talking to each other has become difficult or impossible.

In family mediation, you can be in separate rooms if the mediator feels it is appropriate to do that. So you can set up a temporary arrangement which works for the children, perhaps where you don’t need to see each other at all and this allows time for things to settle. Once everyone is ready and has agreed to it, mediators can then offer a joint mediation session so that you can discuss longer term arrangements and possibly finances too.

If mediation is not appropriate for you or you are getting no response from the other party, it may be that you decide to employ a Solicitor to try to do the negotiating for you. If that doesn’t work, the Solicitor will be able to help you make an application to Court where the Judge will make a decision. The negative side to this is that it doesn’t help to improve family relations and if a Child Arrangements Order (Contact Order or Residence Order) is made, it is legally binding. Because you are giving the authority to the Court to decide, there is no guarantee that the decision will go in your favour and you are then stuck with an arrangement that doesn’t suit you. If this happens, or things change as the children get older, you can still come to Family Mediation to try to negotiate a new plan.

National Family Mediation (NFM) is a network of professional family mediation providers based in England and Wales that work with families affected by relational breakdown. All providers aim to help clients achieve an outcome that works best for them and their family

If you would like to get more information about mediation and/or make an appointment you can contact NFM direct on 0300 4000 636 or you can contact a NFM family mediation provider in your area.

All services also take referrals from Solicitors, the court or other helping / support agencies.